Guest Conductor

The East Stroudsburg Area School District's instrumental music department will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in the high school's Clement Wiedinmyer Auditorium. Dr. Allen E. Beck, retired commander of the Navy Band, will be the guest conductor of each of the four bands -- training, elementary, junior high and high school concert bands. He was named leader of the U.S. Naval Academy band in 1979 and became the first Navy bandmaster to earn promotion to the rank of commander through the Navy's selection board process in 1983.

The Easton Area School District will host more than 100 high school musicians performing in this year's Pennsylvania Music Educators Association's concert. The students represent high schools throughout eastern Pennsylvania, including Lehigh Valley schools. On Friday, Feb. 28, the students will perform in a concert together at 7:30 p.m. in the Easton Area Middle School auditorium. The musicians are the top players from orchestra festivals held in January, according to a news release.

In conversation, Timothy Russell gives the impression that conducting and teaching are equally and fervently important to him. And when that was mentioned to him last week during a telephone conversation from Tampa, Fla., as he was preparing to be guest conductor for a pair of Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra concerts this weekend in Allentown, Russell readily agreed. "I have had an interest in education from day one." After graduating from Northwestern University outside Chicago, Russell returned to Columbus, Ohio, where he had lived since his early grade-school years.

Parkland High School will host more than 200 students at the Region V Chorus Festival Friday and Saturday. The festival held by the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, a state organization that promoted music education, will include 210 singers from 15 counties including Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton. The students will present two concerts for the public at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at Parkland High School in North Whitehall Township. Students who will perform qualified by first auditioning at the district level and then re-auditioning at a district level festival in January.

Henry Neubert relishes the thought of being a guest in his own hometown. The Ithaca College School of Music professor returns to the Lehigh Valley this week to lead the 1993 Pennsylvania Music Educator's Association's District 10 Orchestra Festival, an annual event which this year boasts several firsts. This is the first time Southern Lehigh High School will host the young musicians from the district's 40 school districts. It is also the first time Neubert will serve as guest conductor on his home turf.

It was apparent in every blare of the trumpet, every bellow of the tuba, every beat of the drum. Music is more than a pastime to the 103 students selected for the District 10 Orchestra, it's a passion. In a concert that rivaled the sounds of a big-city symphony, the students performed on the Southern Lehigh Middle School stage in tailored suits and strapless gowns Saturday afternoon. Hours earlier in sweatshirts and baggy jeans, they sat in the same auditorium listening to the shrill voice of practicality.

Students from eight high schools in Lehigh County took part in the County Chorus Festival at Northern Lehigh High School. The guest conductor at yesterday's event was Dr. Pierce A. Getz of Lebanon Valley College, Lebanon County.

William Smith gives tips to members of the Young People's Philharmonic of the Lehigh Valley at a rehearsal yesterday in Lehigh University's Lamberton Hall. Smith is associate conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. Smith's appearance marked the philharmonic's second annual rehearsal with a guest conductor.

Singers and instrumentalists from high schools in the Allentown Catholic Diocese are preparing for a Saturday concert at Marian High School in Hometown. Above, Dr. Peter Loel Boonshaft, guest conductor, leads the band. At right, the music festival chorus rehearses.

Liberty High School , Bethlehem, will host the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 10 Orchestra Concert, with guest conductor Paul Hsun-Ling Chou of the Lehigh University Orchestra, at 8 p.m. today in the auditorium. Tickets will be available at the door, $5 for adults and $3 for children and seniors.

I would like to acknowledge and crow about the District 10 orchestra concert at Northampton Area High School in January. The 103 students representing their 33 school districts, guest conductor Justin Lewis and Rob Vaughn presented a superb program despite the students' delay in arrivals and their short time for rehearsals from the unforeseen weather. The discipline, composure and attire of those young people and the boys I hosted were a tribute to their parents as well as to the arts.

By Philip A. Metzger SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL - Freelance | October 22, 2009

See future orchestra leaders when Curtis students perform in Allentown The Curtis Symphony Orchestra is a student orchestra. But the fact that its members are just a few years away from assuming positions in the leading orchestras of the world puts this ensemble in a class matched by few others. The orchestra's home music conservatory, the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, does not charge tuition, and so it is able to select the best students(students pay room and board). In 1924 Mary Louise Curtis Bok, sole heiress of the Curtis Publishing fortune (Ladies Home Journal, etc.)

By Philip A. Metzger Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | December 21, 2006

Two weeks ago I interviewed JoAnn Falletta about her plan to guest conduct the Lehigh University Philharmonic. The conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic was asked to conduct the Philharmonic after Paul Chou, the orchestra's director, resigned from Lehigh. Whatever the long-term consequences are of Chou's departure, in this instance it provided a remarkable opportunity for the ensemble to find out what it's like to work under one of today's leading conductors. It's a rare opportunity for a student orchestra that's not part of a conservatory.

By Philip A. Metzger Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | December 7, 2006

When Paul Chou, music professor at Lehigh University and director of its all-student Lehigh Philharmonic Orchestra, announced he would be departing at the end of the summer, Paul Salerni, the new chair of the department, knew he had an immediate problem in filling Chou's shoes. In particular, finding a substitute for Chou as conductor of the Philharmonic required immediate attention. Stephen Sametz, also a well-known member of Lehigh's music faculty, was prepared to take over the November concert, particularly since it involved the performance of one of his own compositions.

By Philip A. Metzger Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | July 1, 2004

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of America's greatest bandmaster, John Philip Sousa, and the Allentown Band is celebrating the occasion in fine style. Not only is it playing a series of very interesting concerts, but the band is issuing a CD that contains some of Sousa's lesser-known compositions. I'll get to the concerts, but first, in honor of the occasion, I'd like to review some of the facts of Sousa's life. Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6, 1854; his father was a trombonist in the Marine Band, and this organization would exert a central influence on his life.

Russell G. Reimel, 88, formerly of Easton and Bangor, died March 13 in Gracedale, Upper Nazareth Township. He was the husband of the late Ruth (Steckel) Reimel and Arlean (Albert) Reimel. He worked for the former Schaible's Bakery, Palmer Township, before retiring in 1977. Born in East Bangor, he was a son of the late Russell and Mary (Cornelius) Reimel. He was a member of Memorial United Church of Christ, Wilson. He was a former member of Ackerman Evangelical United Brethren Church and a choir director and director of the orchestra.

Above, guest conductor Jean Anne Shafferman of the 2001 Elementary All-Star Chorus Festival at Catasauqua High School leads the combined chorus Friday evening. At right, James Grays, 11, from Easton Middle School waits with other pupils to perform Friday. The songfest began at 7:30 p.m.

Seven area high schools sent 130 students to the Lehigh County Chorus Festival, which had its final performance last night at Northwestern Lehigh High School. Guest conductor was Kermit Finstad from Gettysburg College. Schools represented were Catasauqua, Central Catholic, Emmaus, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern Lehigh, Parkland and Southern Lehigh.

Liberty High School , Bethlehem, will host the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 10 Orchestra Concert, with guest conductor Paul Hsun-Ling Chou of the Lehigh University Orchestra, at 8 p.m. today in the auditorium. Tickets will be available at the door, $5 for adults and $3 for children and seniors.